The Big Mistakes Enterprises Are Making on Blockchain

Arno Laeven is a strategy and innovation consultant at Laeven Consult, and the former blockchain lead for global healthcare giant Philips.

In this CoinDesk opinion piece, Laeven takes aim at the way incumbents and large corporates have so far sought to implement blockchain, arguing that they need to think bigger to maximize the benefits of the technology.

Let’s just get it out there: using blockchain in an enterprise environment is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

It’s no surprise then, that enterprise blockchain experiments have often resulted in strange and disappointing results. All of this is part of the growing pains of a new technology, one in which the first projects are run by enthusiasts and aren’t part of the discussion at a boardroom or even industry level.

And the latter is important as blockchain technology is a foundational technology that can solve some complex issues. Like my good friend Bart Suichies once said: “Blockchain is not the thing, it is the thing that enables the thing”.

What does this mean? Well, for most enterprise applications, blockchain is only a small part of a full stack. That’s where many projects go wrong.